


Listen to your heart...

by oez023



Category: Druck | SKAM (Germany)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 03:41:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29770128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oez023/pseuds/oez023
Summary: What if Fatou's season had continued throughout 10 more weeks...
Relationships: Fatou Jallow/Kieu My Vu
Comments: 26
Kudos: 107





	1. Week 01

**Author's Note:**

> So I included texts messages to make the story more real. And you can access them in this folder(for the first week): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QAOK_b0HSgHVCuBucUkJNxb7FGiDDC_7  
> (copy and paste it, if you want to access them)

**WEEK 1 ([Texts Folder](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QAOK_b0HSgHVCuBucUkJNxb7FGiDDC_7?usp=sharing))**  
 _Monday - 8:30_  
As she skates to school, Fatou still feels tired from their big party for Finn’s birthday on Saturday. Even if she had her time to relax with Kieu My the whole day yesterday, she still feels exhausted from the hangover, and all the dancing. Also, every Monday means going back to a reality that was relatively scary for her, and definitely very stressful. Although, everything was looking up recently, school is still an enormous stress in Fatou’s life. She knows she isn’t dumb, but she also knows she has a learning disability and that she needs to work harder than everyone else. She skates her way up to the front of the school, smoothly stops and kicks the skate up to take it in her hand. She can’t help but feel a bit overwhelmed every time she walks into school. The big building feels like a prison to her, even after all these years, Fatou has a very negative opinion about school. She walks up to her locker when she feels a quick kiss to her check. She turns around, and sees her gorgeous girlfriend looking at her with loving eyes.  
“Hi.” Kieu My says, with a cute little jump.  
“Hi.” Fatou answers, with hearts in her eyes. “How was your morning?”  
“It was good, I guess..."Kieu My pauses."My parents are stressing out about the store so it’s a bit tense at home…”  
Fatou grabs her girlfriend’s hand in hers to show her support, she almost drops her books but she keeps every thing in balance while looking at the other girl with caring eyes. The first bell rings and Kieu My looks up to the clock on the wall.  
“We can talk more about it later, would that be okay?” Fatou asks.  
“Yeah of course…let’s get to bio”  
With their hands still intertwined, both girls feel at peace with each other as they walk through the halls of the school to get to their biology class. Since last Wednesday, they have been enjoying the love between them, and they feel on a cloud. They arrive to class and walk together towards a desk on the windows side.  
“Do you want to sit next to the window?” Kieu My asks.  
“Nah, I need to be concentrated, I better sit on this side.”  
Fatou smiles softly at her tall girlfriend and sees a proud smile on her face. As they sit, Fatou’s phone vibrates and Kieu My gets her books out of her neon green strapped bag.

[Text: $$-01 01 & $$-01 02]

Fatou smiles at her phone, and the teacher comes in in a hurry as the second bell rings. Kieu My gestures at Fatou to get her books out as the teacher starts talking.  
“Alright guys, I hope you all had a great weekend, as you all know we have a test on Friday, and we will be doing a review class today.”  
“Shit” Fatou whispers.  
Kieu My pats her back gently as Fatou starts to stress out over how much studying she will have to do this week. The shorter girl sighs and start taking notes with a mix of motivation and desperation.

 _Monday - 12:16_  
All the Cashqueens are sitting down at a table in the school under the stairs, when Fatou arrives they all smile at her and she goes to sit next to Ava.  
“Hi, chibi.” Says Ava while hugging her.  
“Sorry for interrupting, what were you guys talking about?” Fatou asks.  
“Well, nothing important, we were discussing the bio exams a bit.” Nora says.  
“Yeah, there’s so much to learn and it’s stressful…it must be harder for you tho, cause you just entered the class” Mailin explained.  
“Kinda, it’s stressful but I have Kieu My and I have all week to figure it out.”  
Fatou smiles at the girls and they all chuckle at her.  
“You really are in love, chibi” says Ava and hits Fatou’s hips jokingly.  
Fatou looks at the table in an awkward manner, the girls chuckle and Fatou smiles at them with full happiness in her eyes.  
“I really am guys, I really love her…”  
The girls gasp at what Fatou said, and look at her with a confused look.  
“Wait? Did you tell her?” Ava asks.  
“Well she told me first…at the party” Fatou smiles so big that all the girls faces are filled with a newly founded happiness. “I know it’s a bit soon to say things like that, but it’s really how we feel and it just came out, because of how intensely we feel about each other, you know, I’m just so lucky that we gave each other a second chance…I’m so lucky to have her…”  
“Awww chibi !”  
“You guys are the cutest couple”  
“I have to say that I was the first one to know how Fatou felt, and even if it was incredibly badly done, I was the one to tell Zoe, I’m sure it had an impact, you know.” Nora says.  
“Hahahah shut upppp” Fatou says.  
The girls keep on talking while enjoying each other’s company. Fatou is incredibly happy that her small group of friends is all back together and that they are closer than ever. Their fight was needed for them to realize how they want and need each other in their lives. Laughs are shared and happiness is filling the space between them as they eat their lunch.

  
_19:28_

[Text: Ismail 01]

 _Tuesday - 14:46_  
Fatou’s hands are shaking, which is not something usual for her. She has always been the chill one, that doesn’t stress about anything. Nonetheless, with everything that happened in the last month, her head feels more and more overwhelmed. She knows it's getting better now that she knows what is wrong, but it still feels like a lot and it can be stressful. Only a week ago, she had to bring back Maike, but now she is here for an interview. In her hands, she is holding a piece of paper, her CV. She enters the grey building, a tall woman is waiting for her and waving at her.  
“Hello, you must be Fatou?” The woman asks and Fatou nods. “I’m Helena, I’m the boss here and I’m here to interview you, I have already seen how you were acting with Maike last week. I can already see how caring you are with animals and it is really what I want in my employee. You can follow me.”  
The way the woman talked to Fatou made her feel very calm and her stress is mostly gone. The short girl follows the other woman as they walk through the zoo. While they are walking, Helena explains how it works with the animals and the different names and species of the animals. Fatou’s eyes light up with happiness when the tall woman begins explaining multiple facts about the animals. Fatou asks questions about them, how they are treated, their origins and everything that she wants to know, she asks. Throughout their visit, the boss asks a couple of questions to Fatou about school and when her last job comes up, Fatou decided to be totally honest with the older woman.  
“Well, in my whole life, I have always had troubles with numbers and the last month was pretty hard for me, and it affected my performance at the store. I didn’t count the money correctly and we lost some money because of me, my boss fired me, a couple weeks ago, after hiring one of my friends...” Fatou explains with a voice full of shame.  
“Well, I’m sorry to hear that and it must have been difficult for you. I’m wondering if you might have an idea of what is causing your difficulty with numbers?”  
“Yes! I have dyscalculia actually. I’m going to therapy and all because of that.” Fatou looks at the other woman, Helena is looking at her with kindness in her eyes, no judgment is present.  
“Thank you for explaining all of this to me, and lucky for you there isn’t any money involved in this job. Of course sometimes you will have to do some inventory lists, but when that moment comes you can always ask for help.” Explains the older woman.  
“I would really love working with animals again…”  
“I can see that in your eyes” Helena says with a big smile on her face.  
They walk back together to the entrance of the zoo, and Helena keeps explaining facts about the job and about the animals. They even go to see Maike in her small new environment, she really missed her small tortoise. The younger girl is really hoping to get the job, it seems to her like this is the perfect job for her.  
“Thank you for coming today, Fatou. I will get back to you in the next few days.”  
“Okay, thank you for giving me this opportunity. Bye !”  
“Bye !”  
Fatou leaves the zoo with a big smile on her face, she feels confident about the interview and she is really happy she might get the job. This job could actually relief stress in her life and be a source of positivity.

  
 _19:47_  
“Fatou, dinner is ready !”  
After spending multiple hours studying, Fatou is relieved to hear her dad call her for dinner. Her head was starting to feel like it could explode at any moments. All those biology terms were starting to mix up. She really wants to prove herself and the school that she can do this. Of course, she wants to get better for her friends and do her Abi with them, but she knows she needs to do this for herself first.  
“What are we eating?” Asks Fatou.  
“Pizza!” Her mom says.  
Fatou sits down with her two parents, Ilai went back to university yesterday, and Fatou can’t help but miss him a little bit. Even if he has an annoying personality and a stupid face, he makes her feel understood and less alone with all her problems.  
“So, how was your day at school?” Her dad asks softly.  
“It was good, I have a lot of catching up to do for my bio class, but at least it’s easier than physics and I have my friends who can help me.” Tells Fatou.  
Both her parents are looking at her with kind eyes, they are very proud of their daughter. They were sad that they weren’t able to see what was going on in Fatou’s life, but now that they know what Fatou is going through, they promised each other to be more careful with Fatou. They really just want her to be happy, and for her to achieve whatever she wants.  
“I also had an interview today…” Fatou says shyly.  
“Nice! Where?” Her mom says excitedly.  
“At the zoo, where I went to give Maike last week with Ismail.”  
“Oh that means you might be able to take care of her again.”  
“Who’s Ismail again?” Her dad asks.  
Both women chuckle at the father’s comment, it’s very usual of him to not remember Fatou’s friends names and who they are. At this point, it is just very funny and doesn’t bother anyone.  
“Ismail is one of Nora ex-best friend? He stole the turtle and gave it to Fatou last term.”  
“They…mom, Ismail’s pronouns are they/them.”  
“Yes, they gave Maike to Fatou.”  
“Oh yes, I think you mentioned them a couple of times before.” The father remembers.  
In that moment, Fatou is really grateful that her parents are so open-minded with almost every subject that could be harder to understand for most parengs. They always have good intentions and they are just genuinely good people, and Fatou has learnt a lot from them.  
“They also are friends with Kieu My, right?” The man asks.  
“Yes” says Fatou shyly, thinking of how she misses her girlfriend right now.  
Both parents look at their daughter with a smile, it seems like this Kieu My is very important to Fatou. They don’t want to ask her about this girl, but they can feel that Kieu My makes their daughter happy. A small smile is on Fatou’s face and she gets lost in her memories. She really is lucky to have Kieu My, the last weeks without her were so hard and heartbreaking, but now that are reunited and it feels good. She is still scared that they might fight again, but she knows that now more than ever she will fight for what she has with Kieu My.  
“Earth to Fatou?” Her mom asks jokingly.  
“Yeah…haha sorry, I was in my head.” Fatou chuckles and hopes that her parents didn’t notice the effect that Kieu My’s name had on her.  
“So this Kieu My, is she your friend?” The father asks.  
“Umm…yeah she is…well I mean…”  
Both her parents are looking at her with confused and intrigued looks.  
“She…she’s my girlfriend…”  
Fatou looks at the table in awkwardness, it seems to have become a habit of hers, every time she is uncomfortable in a situation.  
“Can we meet her sometime?”  
Fatou’s eyes meet her parents as they look at her with exciting eyes. They know their daughter well enough to have realized that there was a new special girl in her life, but they didn’t want to force the conversation on Fatou. In the past couple of weeks, they had seen Kieu My come over more and more, and Fatou leaving the house more and more without really giving details on where she was going. The parents always asked her to text them before going to bed and where she was, but they weren’t very strict about things like that.  
“Well…I would have to ask her, but yes I think you could meet her.”  
“What about next Wednesday? She could have dinner with us and stay the night, we could cook together.”  
Fatou nods at her father’s statement and tells herself to text Kieu My later. They continue eating and talking about their days, and Fatou can’t help herself to be excited about her parents meeting the girl she is in love with.

[Text: Q2 01]

 _Wednesday - 15:06_  
“Sorry, I’m a bit late. I got a bit lost.”  
“No worries Fatou, how was your week?”  
The girl sits down at the desk in front of the therapist. It’s only her second meeting with him, but she can feel that the man really wants to help her and she appreciates it. She talks a bit about her week without a lot of detail, just premising what she struggled with regarding to her dyscalculia.  
“So, it took a bit more time than what we were expecting, but we have your full diagnosis now. It seems like adding to dyscalculia you also have ADHD, not a very severe one, but one that makes it hard for you to concentrate in class, and to forget things easily. You could take medication for it but I don’t think you need it, because I can see that you have found a lot of solutions with things you struggle with. We can work together to find more solutions for you concentration and your memory, does that make sense for you?”  
Fatou is a bit overwhelmed with all the information, but once again she is glad that she now knows that she isn’t stupid, she just has a different brain. She smiles at the therapist.  
“Yeah that makes sense”  
“If you feel comfortable, I would like you to talk to your parents about it. They could also help with remembering events or even give you tips”  
“I will, they have been very supportive, so I will explain it to them.”  
“Nice, that’s perfect, let’s start doing maths then?”  
Fatou groans and takes her math homework out of her bag as they start identifying the things that are harder for her to understand and how they can make it easier. Fatou really tries her best to find solutions to all her the elements she struggles with, and with the help of the therapist they work things through and they work together to find solutions. After a long hour of figuring out her own brain, Fatou feels overwhelmed with everything, but she also feels proud of how much effort she is putting in improving her learning skills. As she is leaving the office, she decides to text the Cashqueens, she wants to be more open with them. She loves them and she trusts every single one of the girls.

[Text: $$-02 01 & $$-02 02]

 _20:21_  
Fatou is lying on the ground in her axolotl hoodie with all her biology notes in front of her, she is trying to study but nothing is working. She feels like she can’t retain any information tonight. She sighs and lays on her back looking at the celling. She can’t help but feel disappointed in herself, she is putting so much effort in school recently and it is not even something that brings her happiness. She can’t help but wish that everything was easier and that she was like everyone. She knows it wouldn’t get easier as soon as she got her diagnosis but she wished it did. It takes her so much energy to figure out the smallest thing in her maths class. Even if biology doesn’t really have numbers, she has to catch up to everyone and has so much more to study for Friday, the stress is getting to her head and she sighs once again. Her phone buzzes, she is getting a call. She takes her phone and sees that it is Kieu My calling her. She answers the video call with a big smile.  
“Hi.” Fatou says.  
“Hi” Kieu My says, with a shy smile. “So I was studying for bio and I thought that I could help you study, would you be okay with that?”  
“Kieu My style?”  
“Yes, Kieu My style hahahah.”  
“Yes, I would like that, I just can’t remember anything tonight, it’s frustrating”  
“Well, let’s take it one chapter at a time, yeah?”  
“Yeah, okay.”  
Both girls smile at each other through their phones, Fatou can’t help but miss the other’s touch, but a FaceTime is more than what she had planned for tonight. They start studying together and it really helps Fatou to have something positive related to the stress she has with school. Having Kieu My helps her see the studying in another way than how she usually does. After around an hour of studying, Fatou is started to get tired of all those biology terms than need to be remembered.  
“Kieu My?”  
“Yes?”  
“Can we stop studying for now and talk a bit? My brain is starting to overheat.”  
“Hahaha yes, we can.”  
Fatou takes her phone and stands up to go lie on her bed. She looks at her girlfriend on her phone and smile.  
“Why are you smiling like that?” Kieu My asks.  
“You’re just very pretty with your messy hair.”  
Kieu My chuckles, she is not used to someone seeing her like that, and still thinking she is beautiful.  
“Maybe you don’t want to talk about it, but Monday morning you started talking about your family and we never got to talk about it more so…”

There's a small silence between the two girls. Kieu My sighs and opens up.  
“I guess, it’s just that with corona there’s been less clients, and also a lot of racist comments about asians, you know people saying we brought it here and stuff like that. I guess my parents are trying to work a lot more to fix for the damage that corona has done to the shop, and we did renovations during the break and that was expensive. It’s just very tense at home…and I study a lot so I can’t help them as much as they would like too, so I feel guilty sometimes…”  
Fatou looks at Kieu My with kind eyes and understanding.  
“I wish I could hug you right now.” The shorter girl says.  
“Me too, I really wish that. Thank you for asking about it.”  
“Of course, Q” Fatou says without thinking, “wait can I call you Q, or is it a surname just for your friends, cause I don’t want-“  
“Q is okay, don’t worry about it. I liked it.”  
Fatou smiles once again at the screen and can’t help but feel a rush of happiness. She sees that Kieu My is yawning, and realizes that Kieu My must be tired.  
“You tired?” Fatou asks, knowing the answer.  
“Yes, but I want to talk to you” she groans, “I think about you all the time, I want to be with you all the time, I miss you all the time…”  
“Even when we are together?”  
“Fatouuu”  
“Sorry hahah, you do seem very tired tho…”  
“I am…”  
“We will see each other tomorrow…and let’s have lunch together, okay?”  
“I like that, I will see you tomorrow axolotl girl.”  
“Yes, zombie woman, we will see each other tomorrow. Sleep well."

Both girls are silence for a second, and Fatou goes to hang up when Kieu My breaks the silence.

“Wait…” Kieu My says shyly, “I love you.”  
Fatou still can’t believe that the girl she has been crushing on for months is saying she loves her before going to bed. It warms her heart in a very new and amazing way.  
“I love you too.”  
“Okay bye!”  
“Bye, bye!”  
They hang up, and Fatou smiles lovingly at her turned off phone. Things are good.

 _Thursday - 12:03_  
As she gets out of class, Fatou feels her phone buzzing in her pocket. She takes it out, a number she doesn’t know is calling her. She takes the call, not letting the anonymity of the caller stop her.  
“Hello?” Fatou says.  
“Hi Fatou, this is Elena from the zoo.”  
“Oh hi! How are you?”  
“I’m doing pretty good, I’m glad I got a hold of you, I know you are in school right now so I guess I got lucky that you aren’t in class.”  
“I actually just got out of class, so it was perfect timing.”

Fatou can hear the other woman's small laugh.  
“Well, I just wanted to let you know that if you are still interested, I would like to offer you the job of caretaker of the animals at the zoo.”  
Fatou is a bit surprised to get the job so quickly but she isn't complaining and she is already excited to start working.  
“Yes! Of course, I’m still interested.”  
“Perfect, I am so relieved, I really loved how passionate you were about the animals and when you came in with Maike, I could see that you took care of her. Would it be okay for you to start Saturday?”  
Her biology exam was tomorrow and she didn’t have any mathematics exam coming up, so this weekend she was free.  
“Yes that would be good for me.”  
“So we open at 12, so could you be there at 11:30?”  
“Yes, that is okay for me.”  
“Perfect, I will be with you to talk about the job and show you how everything works. You don’t need to bring anything, except maybe wear clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty. Uhm…”  
Someone whispers Fatou’s name and she looks up to see Ismail, she points at her phone and Ismail immediately stops calling her.  
“I think that’s all actually, I will have the paper for the contract and everything. Do you have any questions ?”  
“No, I’m all good, thank you so much for the opportunity, I‘m so excited to start working.”  
“I’m excited to have you as an employee too, I will see you on Saturday!”  
“See you Saturday!”  
Fatou hangs up the phone with a big smile on her face, things really are going good for her. Ismail looks at her with a questioning look.  
“Who are you seeing Saturday? You better not be cheating on Kieu My or I will-“  
“Chill, Isma, I got the job at the zoo.” Says Fatou with a bit of desperation in her voice.  
“Omg, I’m so happy for you, I knew you would get it, you are so good with animals and everything, and I knew the boss would see it too…”  
Ismail keeps talking but Fatou zooms out when she sees Kieu My walking towards them. The tall girl is looking straight at her with the cutest smile on her face, with her hair in the wind and her perfect matching outfit. Fatou is staring at Kieu My with all the love she has. She is literally speechless as she looks at the girl, who is her girlfriend. HER girlfriend.  
“Hi, baby.” Kieu My says as she leans in to kiss an overwhelmed Fatou.  
Even if it’s just a small word and a small kiss, nothing makes Fatou feels the way that those two things coming from Kieu My makes her feel. The overwhelming warmth that fills up her body doesn’t leave immediately and she craves more. Her eyes are closed trying to enjoy the kiss at its maximum. When she opens them, Kieu My is looking at her a bit amused but mostly with excited eyes to see her girl.  
“Hi…” Fatou says softly.  
They look at each other with loving eyes and can’t seem to take their eyes off of each other.  
“Okay, lovebirds, I’m still here.”  
They both turn in Ismail's direction and laugh at their disgusted face.  
“So what are the plans?”  
“Well, Fatou and I wanted to have lunch together.”  
“Can I join you guys? I really don’t want to deal with Constantin today.” Ismail says with a small sad smile.  
“Yes, of course.”  
The two girls look at each other and smile. They wanted some alone time, but Ismail is one of Kieu My’s closest friend and they definitely need support right now. Fatou takes the taller girl’s hand in her own and starts walking towards the cafeteria.  
“I really want a chicken sandwich.” Fatou says out loud.  
“Well uhm…actually, my mom made Vietnamese pancakes and I know we were having lunch so I asked her to make more, so I have one for me and one for you…if that’s okay?” Kieu My tells Fatou.  
Kieu My really knows the way to the shorter girl’s heart.  
“You brought me a Vietnamese pancake?”  
“Yes…”  
“Ismail, this girl knows me so well, it’s crazy.” Fatou says turned towards Ismail.  
They laugh at the comment and Fatou smiles with her cute dimples.  
“I don’t have a generous partner that brings me food, so I need to go buy myself something, I will be back.” Ismail says.  
They leave the two girls alone, the girls walk toward a table and it down one next to each other. Fatou is still holding Kieu My’s hand and she turns toward the girl.  
“Q?” Fatou says shyly.  
“Uhm…” Kieu My says as she gets out the food for her and Fatou.  
“I love you.”  
The asian girl looks at the other girl with the softest expression possible, and smiles with all the love she feels.  
“And I really wish I could show you how much I love you, but I don’t think right now is the best moment and place.” Fatou looks at the ground, letting herself be vulnerable is not something she is used to. “Also, I just wanted to tell you that you look gorgeous today.”  
The taller girl eyes show how much she is happy in that moment, and Fatou is pretty proud that she said those things, because she made Kieu My smile.  
“You need to stop saying things like that…because right now I want to kiss you, but I can’t, because we are in our school’s cafeteria and it’s frustrating.”  
Fatou chuckles and gives a quick kiss on Kieu My’s cheek.  
“You can kiss me anytime.”  
“Yeah, I wish…”  
The two girls laugh at each other, and they both feel very at peace with each other. Ismail comes back in the middle of the sweet moment the lovebirds are sharing.  
“Hilo people, did you miss me?”  
Ismail sits at the opposite side of the girls, and they all start eating.

  
 _16:15_  
Fatou is skating home, with her bag full of books. Her lunch with Kieu My was definitely the best moment of her day, even if Ismail was there. It was very fun and made her feel like she belonged. As she gets home, she is thinking about all the things she needs to study. Her biology exam is tomorrow, she knows she need go prepare for the next mathematic’s exam coming up. She needs at least a B to pass her year, and she only has 2 exams left in the class. All the stress that she has on her shoulders is related to school, she just wish it could all go away. She really wants to do her Abi, like everyone else but she thinks about it all the time, and it’s overwhelming. It’s also very hard to talk about it, nobody knows how bad it is for her. She wouldn’t even know how to explain how her brain works, she knows it’s normal how she feels but she still feels like all of the work she is doing doesn’t change much. Hopefully, with therapy and everything, it’s going to get better and easier.

  
_22:03_

[Text: Q2 02]

_22:38_

[Text: Ava 01]

 _23:15_  
All her biology notes are lying on the floor, as she is studying for the last time before the exam. She feels like she needs to prouve to herself that she can do this. She needs to ace that exam so the school knows that she really did have a problem with physics and it’s not that she is a bad student. She has been studying for over 3 hours and she still feels stressed regarding her exam. It's the first period tomorrow, she’s been studying so much for it, she can’t fail this. Kieu My helped her, even the Cashqueens helped her. She knows the information is somewhere in her brain but she doesn’t trust her own brain when it comes to being in stressful situations. After studying for so long, she decides it’s time to go to bed. Her exam is in the morning and she needs sleep, her therapist told her that sleep helps with memory so let’s hope this advice actually helps. As Fatou is laying in an oversized t-shirt, she looks at her ceiling and closes her light. She sighs and tries to relax before closing her eyes and hoping that her brain works correctly tomorrow morning.

 _Friday - 10:18_  
The class is almost completely silent as they are doing their exam, Fatou is answering questions pretty well, and her memory seems to actually be better with words. She isn't letting herself getting distracted by the small noises in the class. She still has a couple of questions to do, and not a lot of time to do them, but she knows that she isn’t going to fail and that really takes a lot of stress of her shoulders. Kieu My is sitting next to her, she has already handed in her exam a couple of minutes earlier, and she seems a bit worried for Fatou. She could see before class that the girl was very anxious, she never really saw Fatou that stressed before, except when they did the physics presentation. She really doesn’t want to overwhelm Fatou when she proposes to study with her, she just wants to help her and shows she cares. Fatou can feel that her girlfriend is overthinking next to her, she can even feel that she is worried for her, but she stays focused on her exam and as the bell rings she answers the last question with a smile. Everyone that had already given back their exams leave the class, except Kieu My who is waiting for Fatou. The skater girl stands proudly and walks towards the teacher to hand in her exam. As she goes back to their desk, Kieu My stands up and gives Fatou her jacket and bag, as they get out of class.  
“I think I did good…” Fatou says.  
“I’m sure you did, you spent so much time studying, I know you did good.” Kieu My smiles at Fatou.  
Fatou drags Kieu My in a more private area and decided to just hug the other girl. They stand in each other’s embrace for a couple of minutes before Kieu My separates them. She looks at the smaller girl with a worried look and smiles softly to show her that she is here.  
“I just wanted a hug…it was stressful…”  
“I know…”  
The two girls look at each other, and Fatou decided to lean in for a small kiss, she smiles as she separates from Kieu My.  
“I also wanted a kiss…”  
Kieu My chuckles at Fatou’s cuteness, and kisses her on her forehead.  
“I’m really looking forward to tonight, I just want to cuddle with you and eat food and watch movies.” Fatou says.  
“No eating in the bed tho!” Kieu My says jokingly.  
“But I bought chocolate pretzels just for you!” Fatou says with her puppy eyes face that Kieu My can’t resist.  
“We will see then…”  
Kieu My smiles at the other girl, and she gets lost in her puppy eyes. The bell rings and Kieu My takes out her phone.  
“Shit, I have German.”  
“And I have French.” Fatou says. “Can I have one last kiss?”  
Kieu My nods and leans in for a short but sweet kiss.  
“We’ll see each later?” Kieu My says as she leaves.  
“Yes.”  
The taller girl leaves with a fast pace towards the opposite way where Fatou needs to go.

  
 _13:10_  
“Bro, that’s not true!”Ava says.  
“What do you mean it’s not true?” Nora argues.”Chocolate is way better than candies and that’s a fact.”  
Maillin and Fatou look at each other with a big annoyed smile on their face, the argument had been lasting for the past 10 minutes. Fatou is happy they aren’t arguing about anything serious, Since they have reconciled on valentines day, it feels good and refreshing to be around her friends.  
“I swear on my life, that chocolate is better than candy.”  
“I have to disagree with that” a new voice says.  
Fatou turns around and sees Ismail. They are surrounded by Finn, Zoe and Kieu My, who discreetly winks at Fatou.  
“Candy is definitely better that anything with chocolate on it” Ismail says.  
“Exactly. Boom Nora, I win.”  
They all chuckle a bit, but the atmosphere is a bit awkward with the Instas just standing there.  
“What are you guys doing here?” Asks Maillin to break the silence.  
“Well, actually, we were wondering if we could join you for lunch?” Zoe asks.  
The Cashqueens look at each other, confused. Recently, they have to admit that the Instas were more and more intertwined with their lives. Especially now that Kieu My and Fatou are together, and that Ismail is trying so hard to be friends with Fatou. Also, Ava and Zoe have gotten closer because they live together, so without Constantin, I think both groups could get along pretty well. Fatou with an overly kind heart immediately says:  
“Of course, you can join us, anytime.”  
The four of them smile fully, and let their masks down to just enjoy being a teen for a while. Ismail sits next to Mailin, and Finn and Zoe sit next to Nora and Ava. Of course, Kieu My sits next to Fatou, and gives her a small kiss on the cheek.  
“I can’t wait for our movie night.” Whispers Kieu My.  
“Same, I can’t wait for the cuddles.”  
They smile lovingly at each other, and both groups have lunch together and talk about everything normal teenagers would with their friends.

  
 _15:11_  
Fatou and Kieu My are walking home, hand in hand. It’s silent but a very confortable silent. Fatou is glad her week is over and that she gets to spend the night with her Kieu My. Fatou suddenly stops in her tracks and thinks about the first time they walked together and how far they’ve come.  
“What’s wrong?” Kieu My asks.  
“I want to teach you to skateboard.”  
“Really?”  
“Yeah like the first time.”  
Fatou puts the skate board on the ground, takes Kieu My’s bag and takes Kieu My’s hand while she slowly puts her feet on the skateboard. Fatou smiles at the awkwardness that Kieu My has while she is standing on the skateboard.  
“Try standing straight...But your knees need to be less straight.”  
Kieu My tries to follow Fatou’s advice but struggles to stay up. Fatou starts moving forward and drags Kieu My with her. Fatou can feel the other girl’s stress and she chuckles. They laugh together when Kieu My falls.  
“Hahaha I think that’s enough for today.” Kieu My says.  
“I think you looks badass on a skateboard, Q.”  
“Have you seen yourself on a skateboard. Damn, every time I’m like that’s my girl and she looks sexy.”  
Fatou smiles and laughs so hard at Kieu My’s words, she adores when the other girl compliments her and it makes her feel loved. They look at each other and smile, they just are happy together.

  
 _20:16_  
Kieu My and Fatou are laying in Kieu My’s bed watching the second movie of the night. The atmosphere is very peaceful, but Fatou feels a bit stressed out as she starts overthinking. Kieu My is laying on her lap, as Fatou plays with her hair, it feels very domestic and usual for them to lay like that. Without realizing Fatou starts to shake her leg a bit and Kieu My turns her head towards the other girl.  
“Are you okay?”  
“Yeah, I think so.”  
“You think so?”  
Fatou tilts her head to the side and looks at Kieu My with a small smile. Kieu My pushes herself up to be at the same height as Fatou and stops the movie. She stays silent to let Fatou talk, but Fatou has a hard time opening up.  
“Hey…it’s okay. This week we talked more about my parents and me, but... I want to know what is going on with you. I‘m not here to judge, I’m here to listen.”  
Kieu My knows that Fatou doesn’t talk about her problems much, but she knows that her girl appreciates physical contact, a lot. She kisses Fatou with all the love she has and backs up from the kiss a couple of seconds later.  
“I just feel stressed…like yeah I got my diagnosis and all, but I still have to work so hard for everything and I need to prove that I deserve to do my Abi…it’s just sometimes it gets overwhelming and I feel disappointed in myself. I kinda just wish it was easier…”  
“Awn baby, it’s okay to feel stressed, especially because you have to work harder than everyone to get the same results, but it shows how resilient you are. I know it’s hard to not feel those things, but I’m here to to listen and help you when it gets too much, okay?”  
“Okay…”  
“Come here.”  
Kieu My opens her arms for Fatou, and the shorter girl lets a sigh of relief. She feels so safe in Kieu My’s arms, she feels better that she has ever felt. Fatou knows they had a hard time recently and she knows that no relationship is perfect all the time, but she appreciates Kieu My so much and she loves her so much. She just enjoys the moments she has with her.  
“I love you” Fatou whispers in Kieu My’s ear.  
The words send a shiver down the other girl’s spine and she holds on to Fatou tighter for a couple of seconds, before going in for a kiss. They spent the night talking, kissing and enjoying each other’s presence without rushing into anything. Time isn't a factor when they are together.


	2. Week 02

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Week 02 - Fatou gets her bio exam back, Kieu My meets the parents...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! This chapter slowly sets up the plot (there's still a lot of kieutou in it), enjoy!

**WEEK 02[[Texts Week 02]](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ZwO0SniUG_RcEoeevYSE9R4u2C-7AwOq?usp=sharing)**

_Saturday - 9:30_

Fatou wakes up before Kieu My does. The short girl is holding the other girl in her arms. Fatou always ends up being the big spoon, with that information she concluded that her girlfriend loves being held. Fatou turns away from the other girl, and she can hear Kieu My groan a bit in her sleep.

“Come back” Kieu My whispers under her breath.

Fatou looks at her phone to check the time, she doesn’t want to be late for her first shift at the zoo and she actually hasn’t really told Kieu My that she was working today. After a couple of seconds, Fatou feels Kieu My turning around and take Fatou in her arms.

“Better” Kieu My says softly.

Fatou chuckles at how soft her girlfriend is being, she loves it when Kieu My is full on cuddle mode activated. Fatou turns around to face Kieu My.

“Hi” she says.

“Good morning, beautiful.” Fatou says.

They both smile at each other, Kieu My leans in for a quick kiss.

“So I need to go to work soon.”

“Work? What…you didn’t tell me about work…did you get hired at the zoo?”

“Yeah I actually did, sorry, I forgot to tell you. I’m so dumb” Fatou slaps her head.

“No, no, you aren’t. I guess I didn’t think you would have news so fast and I didn’t really ask either.”

“Well, I did get hired, and I start today at 11:30.” 

Kieu My groans and hugs Fatou tightly.

“What’s wrong?”

“I just don’t want you to go…I want to lay with you, here, all day.”

“I want that too” Fatou says as she kisses Kieu My on the cheek. “But I also want to work with cute animals all day, so I can get money to buy you snacks.”

Kieu My smiles and gets out of Fatou’s embrace. She strokes her hair and looks at her with a pout on her face. Fatou pouts too, she can’t see her girlfriend sad without being sad herself.

“Stop being sad, if you’re sad, then I’m sad.”

“No, let’s not be sad, please.”

They both laugh and their pouts disappear as soon as they appeared.

“Can we make breakfast before you leave?” Kieu My asks.

“By we you mean me, right?” Fatou says, jokingly.

“I mean, I can help…but it’s sexy when you cook for me.”

Fatou feels the heat going up her face, Kieu My smirks, she knows the impact her words have on her girlfriend and she is kinda proud of it.

“I can’t help but want to kiss you every time I see you cook” Kieu My says.

She gets closer and closer to a very flustered Fatou.

“And when I start to kiss you, I don’t want to stop.”

The asian girl gets closer, and teases Fatou before going in for a slow kiss. Fatou melts into the kiss as soon as the other girl closes the distance between them. The taller girl takes advantage of the situation to get on top of her girlfriend and straps her down. She stops kissing the shorter girl and looks at her with a devilish look.

“You can’t leave now, you’re stuck with me.” Kieu My says.

Fatou scoffs and looks at her girlfriend with a challenging look. Without giving Kieu My a warning, Fatou flips them around and is now on top of her girlfriend.

“Can you repeat that?” Fatou says proudly.

Kieu My is speechless and looking at her girlfriend in shock. She really wasn’t expecting something like that, she didn’t think Fatou was this strong.

“So pancakes?” Fatou says as she stands up next to the bed.

Fatou starts to walk out and hears Kieu My whisper: “Damn…”

_12:37_

Helena has been showing Fatou the roots if what she will be doing during her shifts for the past hour, and Fatou is loving every part of her new job. She just needs to clean the environment and the animals, feed the animals, organize the food and follow a pretty easy list of things to do. She rarely has to interact with clients, and doesn’t work with anything related to numbers. Helena shows her the way to the employees’ room, and they sit down.

“So here is your contract, you can read it now if you want, it is not very long.”

The woman hands her a piece of paper. Fatou starts reading the contract, the first things aren’t anything unusual until she comes upon this one line.

“Wait…I will have to take some animals home sometimes?” Fatou asks.

“It is very rare but it happens sometimes we need employees to take care of animals that we don’t usually take care of here. Most the time it’s because we don’t have place here to offer them shelter, other times it’s during a switch between the zoo and another animal shelter. Honestly, don’t worry about it, it almost never happens, it’s just a thing that you need to agree to.”

“Well, I would love to have to take care of an animal…so just let me know if you need me to.”

“I appreciate it, I really took the good decision when hiring you.”

Both women look at each other with happiness and genuine kindness. Fatou knows she is going to find comfort doing this job, and she needs that in her life. She doesn’t need to add stress to her life, school is enough.

“If you have any questions about the contract let me know, I’ll be in my office. When you are done you can just go back to doing the list. We close at 6, and we have a cleaning team so, your shift will be over at 6 and you can take a 30 minutes break when you feel like it.”

“Okay!”

Helena leaves Fatou alone as she continues reading the contract. After reading it, signing it and giving it back to her boss, Fatou decided to go see Maike. The tortoise is looking good in her small cage, she looks healthy. After cleaning her hands, Fatou pats Maike on the head and on her shell.

“Hi baby, I miss you at home, mmh.” She says to the small tortoise ”I wish I could take you back home, but I don’t have time for you and my parents wouldn’t like it. Maybe one day I will. I love you, little one. I need to go work now. I will come say bye later.”

Fatou kisses her hand and pats Maike on the head. Fatou takes the list and starts doing the chores that Helena asked her to do.

_21:35_

[Text - Ava 2]

_Sunday - 12:02_

Fatou rings the doorbell and waits for Ava to come open the door for her. A couple of seconds later, the door opens up and a smiling Ava is looking at Fatou. The smaller girl is holding her skate in one hand and her guitar in the other.

“Hi chibi!”

“Hey!”

Fatou puts her guitar against the wall. Both girl lean in for a hug and enjoy the other’s embrace.

“Come on in.”

Fatou puts her skate in the corner with her shoes and hangs up her jacket where she always hangs it up. The apartment feels very silent, she concludes that Nora and Zoe are probably out with their respective boyfriends.

“Are we alone?” Fatou asks.

“Yeah, I know Nora slept over at Josh’s and Zoe is probably at Finn’s.”

Fatou nods as she follows Ava to her room, the music set up is all organized and Fatou feels the excitement her body growing.

“So, since last time, I worked on the song and I have a couple of things to add. So maybe we could work on that?” Ava says.

“Yes sounds good!”

The two girls start working on their last song, and the atmosphere is peaceful. Fatou feels like doing music is like being on a cloud. Honestly, nothing compares to it, except maybe kissing Kieu My. All the harmonies that they add to the song makes it feel fuller and complete. Fatou also proposes to add some acoustic tracks to the song, but Ava says that maybe they should do a complete acoustic version of it.

“That would be very cool!”

“Yeah, I know Chibi, it would be Magic AF.”

Fatou laughs at the comment, and remembers the time Kieu My proposed the name for their duo. So much has happened since then. The name still fits their duo perfectly, because the music they produce together always feel like it’s magic. After a couple of hours, Ava decides that the song is done and they listen to it one last time, before impulsively posting it on SoundCloud.

“Second song out!” Ava says proudly.

Both girl lay down on Ava’s bed and they let out a happy breath.

“I missed this, I love music, I don’t know why I associated with stress…” Fatou says.

“I think, maybe, everything stressed you out at that moment? Like you couldn’t differentiate what was making you feel better and what wasn’t.”

“Meh…I don’t know, I guess that could be it…I had a lot on my mind.”

There’s a small silence between the girls, Ava takes Fatou in her arms and comforts her.

“I’m glad we did this today, we should do it more.” Fatou says.

Ava nods and kisses Fatou on the forehead,

“As long as it is not adding stress to your life, we can do it as often as you want.”

They feel at peace with each other. The two best friends are always comfortable together, but since they made up, they have been more open with the way they feel.

“Should we order food, later?” Ava asks.

“Yes, ramen definitely.”

_18:08_

“I think this bridge could go like _not now not today not never I think we should get away_ and I could play this chord and this chord on replay.”

Fatou was showing Ava an idea she had about a song on her guitar. Ava is taking notes on her computer and agreeing to what Fatou is saying.

“That would be pretty cool, and you can repeat it twice and then silence with only the guitar.”

“Yes, good idea.”

Fatou plays the song and gets interrupted by a knock on Ava’s door. Both girls look at each other confused.

“Weren’t we alone?” Fatou says.

Ava’s confusion shows that she doesn’t know who is behind that door either. The girl stands up and open the door.

“Hi, Zoe and I was wondering if you wanted to order food?”

Fatou recognizes the voice immediately and stands up to go see the girl behind the door. Ava opens the door for the two other girls to see each other. Their eyes meet and a surprised but genuine smile appears on both their faces.

“Hi, good-looking.” Fatou says as she gets closer the her girlfriend.

“Hi, baby.”

Kieu My leans in for a quick kiss, because they are in front of Ava, and looks at her with a bit of confusion in her eyes.

“Ava and I, we were making music.” Fatou says before her girlfriend even asks the question.

“Well, would you two like to order something with us?”

“We wanted ramen.” Ava says.

“Zoe! Would ramen be okay for you?” Screams Kieu My in direction of the living room.

“Yeah, it’s good!” Zoe screams.

“Would you be down to watch a movie with us, later?” Kieu My asks, looking at Ava.

Fatou would have said yes immediately, but today was her day with Ava, and maybe her best friend wasn’t down to spend the night with the two other girls.

“Yes, of course! Movie night with the girls!” Ava says happily.

_21:06_

After their second movie ends, Zoe is deep asleep on the sofa and Ava is yawning every minute. Kieu My’s head is on Fatou’s legs as the shorter girl plays with her girlfriend’s hair.

“I will take Zoe to bed, are you sleeping over Kieu My?” Ava asks.

“Yeah, I am supposed to. I can take the sofa, don’t worry.”

“And I should get home, it’s getting late.”

Ava smiles in Fatou direction and gives her a small hug before waking up Zoe, and getting her to bed. Fatou stands up to go get ready to leave.

“No goodnight kiss?” Kieu My says.

“Come with me.”

Kieu My stands up and follow Fatou to Ava’s room, where she picks up her guitar and her skate. She puts on her shoes and jacket and she looks at her girlfriend with tired eyes.

“I was happy to see you today.” Kieu My says.

“Me too, a lot.”

Fatou comes closer to the other girl and hugs her tightly. She backs up and Kieu My leans in for a slow kiss. The both deepen the kiss, Fatou’s hands are gripping at Kieu My’s shirt and Kieu My’s hands are intertwined with the other’s hair. Both of them don’t want the kiss to end, when they enjoy each other’s touch, it feels like the time has stopped. They hear a door close behind them and they stop kissing as they hear Ava approaching. They smile at each other like two idiots in love, with their hands still holding each other.

“Goodnight Ava!” Kieu My says as Ava enters her room.

“Goodnight bebi.” Fatou says.

“Goodnight, lovebirds.”

The two girls chuckle at each other with big smiles on their faces.

“I should go.” Fatou says.

“I know…”

Kieu My exaggerates a pout and tries to do her best puppy eyes to charm Fatou, but the other girl laughs and kisses her quickly on the cheek.

“You look adorable, but my parents won’t be happy if I got home after 10 on a school night…so I have to go.”

“Okay…”

Kieu My leans in for a small kiss and backs up from her small girlfriend, to give her the space to leave.

“I love you”

“I love you too, baby. We will see each other tomorrow.” Kieu My says

Fatou smile and leaves the apartment with music in her ears, and Kieu My in her head. She skates home with a big smile and she feels the happiest she has felt in a while.

_Monday - 9:13_

Fatou’s heartbeat is going faster, the teacher has been given out the exams for the past 5 minutes and her name still hasn’t been said out loud.

“Kieu My.”

Her girlfriend stands up and gets her exam, Fatou can see the proud smile the girl has on her face. She definitely got an A. She goes back to sit down next to Fatou.

“I got an A.” Kieu My whispers.

“I knew you would, you’re amazing.” Fatou says, smiling at the other girl.

She can’t help but feel very proud of her girlfriend, even if her heart is pounding out of her chest. This first exam is going to tell her if she is doing something wrong or not, and if she actually has difficulty only in physics and not in biology. She taps her foot repeatedly on the floor and her eyes are looking straight at the board. She doesn’t want her name to be called out, but she also wants to know how it went. All the confidence she had after the exam last week is totally gone, and she feels like everything is out of her control and she hates it. The stress is makes her feel nauseous, and tires her rapidly. She tries to stabilize her breath when Kieu My pats her on the leg. Fatou closes her eyes and takes in a deep breath.

“Fatou.”

Her heart skips a beat, as she stands up to get her exam. It seems like the time is going slower around her and she feels heavy. She breaths in and out. She arrives in front of the teacher, the woman is looking at her with a smile that Fatou can’t read. Did she do good or did she fail? She probably failed. She knows herself. The stress is slowly making her loose sense of time, as she takes the exam in her hands and looks at it. At the top, in red, the teacher wrote: “Great job!”. Fatou got a B+, all her worries wash away and she lets herself breath normally again. She didn’t fail, and she got a very good grade. She can’t believe it, it is amazing. She smiles at the teacher and she gets a big genuine smile in return.

“Thank you” Fatou murmurs.

“It’s all you, I’m genuinely glad to have you in my class, Miss Jallow.” The teacher says.

They share a kind smile, and Fatou goes back to her desk and locks eyes with a worried Kieu My. Fatou smiles at her, letting her know that she didn’t fail and that she is okay. She sits down, and smiles at her exam.

“I got a B+”

“Oh my god Fatou, this is amazing, I knew you could do it. I am so proud of you, baby.”

Every time Kieu My calls her baby, her face gets hot and she just melts.

“Calling me baby is becoming a habit now?”

“Well, if it bothers you I can stop.”

“No, please don’t, it’s just…making me blush.”

The two girls look at each other with loving eyes and Kieu My can’t stop from feeling so proud of Fatou.

“I wish I could kiss you right now.” Kieu My says

“Stop saying that, you’re playing with my emotions.”

Kieu My winks at Fatou and the short girl chuckles. After giving out all the exams, the teacher starts presenting the new topic and Fatou feels more motivated than discouraged this time.

_Tuesday - 10:43_

“We will have the exam on chapter 7, 8 and 9 in two weeks. Therefore, for the next 3 classes we will be reviewing the chapters. You need to start studying, this exam is very important…”

Fatou focuses out, as her heartbeat increases. Her breath gets faster and faster, and she feels like she can’t breath. She doesn’t understand what is happening, she has never felt this overwhelmed by her stress before. She was always chill, but knowing that the next two exams are her only way to pass the year in maths, she is stressed out like she never was before. She doesn’t know anyone in her class, she can’t ask for help and that makes her feel even worst. The teacher continues talking, but Fatou is not listening , she is trying to control her breathing. She doesn’t understand what this is, is she having a panic attack or an anxiety attack or something else. She doesn’t know what this intensity of stress is. She silently groans, and breaths out.

“What is happening to me?” She asks to herself.

Stress is a feeling that was never usual for her, and she thought that after figuring out her brain and going to see a therapist, it would go away, but it clearly isn’t. She hates feeling like this, she just wishes she could go back to two days ago when she was playing music with Ava, or watching a movie cuddled with Kieu My. She doesn’t understand why she has to do maths, this is stupid. She closes her eyes and counts the seconds to stabilize her breathing, she is losing herself within her thoughts and nothing is calming her down.

“Miss Jallow, are you okay?”

Fatou looks up and sees her teacher looking at her. The woman looks intrigued, but mostly worried.

“Yes, sorry, I’m tired.”

“Well, you should do your exercises now, there is still 25 minutes left to the class.”

“Yes, miss, I will.”

Fatou looks at the white board in front of the class, and sees the exercises written on the board. She opened up her book and sighs. She starts reading over the exercises and taps her head lightly. Nothing makes sense, all those numbers they just don’t make any sense to her. She goes back to her notes and tries to remember what her therapist said in her last sessions.

“Quantities, quantities…f(x) equals 5x plus b. I need to find b. How Fatou, how…shit.”

She reads her notes, writes down the steps and formulas. In 25 minutes, she did two exercises and oneof them is wrong.

_15:26_

Fatou is at her locker, tired of her day and eager to go home. Today wasn’t good. She spent her lunch at the library trying to do maths, she hasn’t seen her friends for lunch and didn’t get to see Kieu My either. She just wants to go home and nap until tomorrow.

“Hey, Fatou?…Fatou?”

Fatou turns around and snaps out of her thoughts.

“Hey, Ismail.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, just tired. What’s up?”

“Nothing, I just saw you and wanted to say hi.”

Ismail smiles and the girl can’t help but give them a small smile.

“Can I talk to you about something?” Ismail asks.

“Yeah, of course.”

“So, since you guys organized the live show on insta, we haven’t really heard from the Abiball committee, and I was wondering if maybe we could do like a big group chat with like all the people that were at Finn’s party? Like maybe we could all be in the committee and work together to collect money…I don’t know, it was just an idea…”

Fatou looks at Ismail with a conflicted look. She doesn’t really understand why they are so kind all of a sudden. She thinks it is because of the situation with Constantin, but maybe there is something else.

“I mean, I’m sure if you talk to Ava and fix things with her, the girls would accept, but you need to talk to Ava first.”

“Okay, yeah you are right, I will go talk to her right now. Thank you, bye!”

Ismail leaves in a hurry, and Fatou is left alone a bit confused at the interaction but also glad that Ismail will go talk to Ava. She picks up her bag full of books and leaves the school to skate home.

_ 20:21 _

[Abiball 01-01/01-02/01-03]

_Wednesday - 16:02_

Fatou is leaving the building as she just got done with her therapy session. She discussed with her therapist about the math exam coming up and the stress that it was causing her. She didn’t talk about the kinda panic attack she had, because she was able to deal with it. She tells herself that if it gets worst, she will talk about it, but right now she feels like she can keep it to herself. The therapist said that she needed to focus on maths for the next two weeks, because she needs to have a good grade, but that stresses her out more than anything. She feels tired, she was studying last night, she didn’t sleep much and with everything spinning in her head, she just wants a calm evening. She gets out of the building, and sees a shy Kieu My waiting in front of the building, with a milkshake and French fries in her hands. Fatou smiles at her girlfriend.

“Hi, cutie.” Fatou says.

“Hi, baby. How was therapy?”

“Meh, it was fine. I’m glad to be with you now tho.”

Fatou smiles lightly, Kieu My feels that Fatou is not being 100% honest with her right now but she doesn’t want to push Fatou to open up, they have been doing so good for the past 2 weeks and she doesn’t want to lose that.

“How are you feeling about meeting my parents?” Fatou asks, with a smile.

Kieu My hands Fatou the food and they start walking towards Fatou’s home.

“My dad said we would be cooking all together…”

“What? But I’m the worst at cooking, I’m going to humiliate myself.”

Kieu My slaps her forehead with her hand as Fatou looks at her with compassion, The shorter girl stops in her steps and takes the other’s hands.

“Hey, stop that. Look at me.”

Kieu My looks down at Fatou, her girlfriend is smiling at her with the cutest smile.

“My parents are going to love you, I know it, and it’s going to be fun.”

Fatou gets on the tip of her feet to kiss her girlfriend’s nose to show comfort.

“Okay?”

Kieu My nods and smiles lightly, it’s hard to hide the stress that she is feeling, especially with Fatou. She is meeting her parents, it is a big thing for her and it’s important that Fatou’s parents like her. Then, she looks at Fatou and she feels at peace, that girl is everything for her.

“Okay.” Kieu My says.

“Do you want to listen to music?” Fatou asks.

“Ouhh yes, can you put that song that we talked about last time?”

“Hahaha that isn’t very precise, but yes I can.”

Fatou gives one of her earphones to the taller girl, and starts playing _ilomilo_ by Billie Eilish.

_19:23_

Kieu My and Fatou are slowly getting out of Fatou’s room, side to side. Her mother called them to come cook with them a couple of minutes ago, Fatou had said that they would be coming. They also heard the music start playing, and when the music starts Fatou knows that her parents are going to be in the cooking zone. The two girls get in the kitchen, with Kieu My timidly hiding behind Fatou.

“What are we eating?” Fatou asks.

“I’m making chicken penne with rosé sauce.” The father says.

“WE are making.” Her mother says.

Both parents and Fatou chuckle at the mother’s comment.

“Yes WE are. Can you give me the salt, Fafa?” Her father asks.

Fatou gives her father the salt, and sees that Kieu My is looking at her with a funny look. She mouths “Fafa” and raises an eyebrow. Fatou shakes her head and looks at the floor. She is embarrassed of the nickname her family gives her, but her father will never stop calling her that way. They are now all in the kitchen, preparing supper together. The atmosphere is peaceful. The only stress that is present in the room comes from Kieu My, but she is pretty good at hiding it. Unfortunately for her, Fatou sees her and sees the way she is playing with her hands. The two parents are stuck in their own little world dancing to the music and cooking together, it’s adorable. While the parents are distracted, Fatou gets closer to Kieu My and takes one of the taller girl’s hand in her own.

“You okay, Q?” Fatou asks.

“Yeah, I’m good.” Kieu My smiles at the other girl.

Fatou quickly kisses Kieu My on the cheek and drags her closer to her parents. Hopefully, the parents will get the hint and start up a conversation to make Kieu My feel more comfortable.

“So how was your day at school?” The father asks the two girls.

“It was good, it’s school so meh…” Fatou says.

“What about you, Kieu My?” The mother says kindly.

“Uhm, well it was a good day for me too, we’re starting to get more and more exams…but it’s going good. How about you two at work?”

“Normal boring day at work” the father says, with a small day. “Nothing important…So, Kieu My,do you want you’re planning to do after your Abi?”

Fatou looks at her girlfriend with a small smile to encourage her to talk.

“Well, I would love to study astrophysics…”

“She is a space geek, it’s super cute.” Fatou chuckles. “I love it.”

The parents look at each other with a big smile on their face.

“Astrophysics is a very interesting field. I’ve always wanted to be an astronaut when I was younger, but my dad always said that it was too risky…”

“Space is fascinating, it’s huge and full of new possibilities and I have a weird obsession with it, so why not study it.” Kieu My says.

“You are really a space nerd.” Fatou’s mother says with a smile.

Kieu My looks down shyly.

“I think it’s very impressive that you have the courage to study something so difficult to understand.” The mother continues. “We need more women in that field anyways.”

Kieu My gives the parents a genuine smile, her nerves are slowly going away.

“So how did you guys meet?” The man asks.

They start setting up the table everyone together, and the parents start to put the food on the table. They all sit down, Fatou sits next to Kieu My in front of her father.

“That’s actually a long story…” Fatou says with a small smile. “In short, Kieu My is Nora’s sister’s best friend.”

“What…?”

Both parents look very confused, they stay silent to let the girls explain how they met.

“In short, I’ve had a crush on her for a while, but her friend’s group and mine, they didn’t get along. So I never got to talk to her, until a couple of weeks ago.” Kieu My looks at Fatou, with a shy smile. “ Our lives just started getting more and more intertwined, and I got to know her better. It wasn’t always easy, but here we are, and I couldn’t be more happy about it.”

Fatou is fully blushing by the end of Kieu My’s sentence. Both parents are completely in love with the new couple that is sitting in front of them.

“Well, Kieu My, you really make our daughter happy and that is all we wish for her.” The mother says.

Kieu My doesn’t feel stressed anymore, she really feels accepted in her girlfriend’s small family and she can’t wait until her parents meet the girl she loves. Hopefully, they will react the same way.

“So, Kieu My, what do you do for fun?”

“Well…”

“She dances at the school, she is amazing at it. She also can get through any horror movie without even flinching, and she-”

“Fatouuu…” Kieu My says.

“We know you love everything about your girlfriend Fafa, but she can talk for herself, you know.” The mother says.

Fatou whispers a small sorry, and stops talking to let Kieu My express herself.

“I work at my parent’s shop most the time, it can be very exhausting sometimes, especially with corona, it’s been difficult, but I love working there.”

“I’m sorry to hear that…I hope it will get better for your family.”

“We all do.” Fatou says taking her girlfriend’s hand in her own. “Can we start eating now?”

“Always hungry that girl.” The father says.

Fatou sighs, annoyed, but the three others laugh at the comment.

“Yes, we can eat.” The mother says.

The four of them start eating with determination, they were all very hungry. They all enjoy their dinner and the people they have around them. Fatou is so happy that her girlfriend feels better and not stressed anymore, she knew her parents would love the girl that she has fallen for. She was more scared of Kieu My putting pressure on herself to be someone she isn’t around her parents, but it looks like the asian girl stayed her honest self and charmed her parents.

_21:45_

Fatou is laying on her bed, doing maths and trying to understand, but she honestly has given up for the night. Kieu My is sitting at her messy desks, focused on her homework, and Fatou doesn’t want to disturb her, she just acts like she’s doing homework. She doesn’t want to worry Kieu My, and she also doesn’t want to worry herself. She wants to believe in herself, and believe that she can do this. She rolls around in her bed and tries to make the less noise possible to not attract Kieu My’s attention. She starts playing with her phone, she turns her audio off.

“Fatouuuu…”

Fatou rolls around as she accepts she got caught not studying.

“We need to study maths…”

“I know, I know sorry…”

Fatou sits up and puts her glasses back on, opens up her book again and looks down in desperation. Everything is school recently, and it’s getting a lot now. She had therapy today, does she really need to study tonight. She rubs her head like it might make her brain work better, but she knows it won’t. She starts reading the formulas and the notes for what seems like the hundredth time today, and honestly nothing is getting in her head. She can feel her breath getting faster, she can feel her hands shaking, she doesn’t want this to happen now, especially not in front of Kieu My. She tries to focus on her breathing, she puts her hands in her hair and scratches her scalp.

“Hey, Fatou…” Kieu My says softly.

She doesn’t Kieu My to see her like that, she breaths in and pushes down the anxiety.

“What’s up?” Fatou says, with her best fake smile.

Kieu My is now facing the other girl, and she’s coming closer to the bed. Kieu My is looking at her right in the eyes, but Fatou focuses on her math notes to avoid Kieu My’s eyes.

“Hey, look at me…”

Fatou can’t stop herself and looks up at her girlfriend. She tilts her head to the side to try and read what is going on in Kieu My’s head.

“Are you okay?” Kieu My asks.

“Yeah I’m fine, I just think I’ve done enough maths for today…” Fatou says with a small smile.

“Okay, do you want to get ready to go to bed?”

“Maybe, you can still study if you need to. I don’t want to be a distraction…”

“You are not, it’s getting late anyway, my brain isn’t retaining as much information as I wish.”

Fatou smiles at Kieu My and stands up to get changed into her pyjamas. Kieu My does the same and a couple of minutes later, school notes are put away, and both girls are in Fatou’s bed cuddled up into each other’s warmth. They are facing each other, their noses are almost touching, the lights are off and they feel happy.

“This is the best moment of my day…” Fatou says.

She breaths out her stress and she feels good, with Kieu My in her bed.

“I don’t think I will ever get used to the feelings I get when I’m with you…I’ve never felt this way with anyone…”

As she speaks, Fatou gets closer and closer to Kieu My. She leans in to kiss her, with all the love she has and all the love she wants to give. At first, Kieu My is overwhelmed by all the emotions but they both let themselves loose sense of time and space to just feel how it feels like be completely intertwined with each other. They separate for a couple seconds to catch their breaths and look at each other. Kieu My puts her forehead on Fatou’s.

“…I…”

“Yeah, I know…” Fatou says.

They both chuckle, and Kieu My takes Fatou into her arms and plays with her hair.

“I think we should sleep.” Kieu My says.

“Yeah we should…and just so you know, my parents love you and I really appreciate you coming tonight.”

“Thank you for inviting me, it was a great evening.”

They both smile at each other and intertwine their bodies. The warmth they share, and the comfort they bring each other make sit very fast for them to fall asleep.

_Thursday - 12:11_

Fatou, Ismail and Kieu My are sat down at a table eating their lunch. Fatou’s phone buzzes. 

[Text $$-03]

“I hope it doesn’t bother you, but everyone is going to come have lunch with us.” Fatou says.

“Who’s everyone?” Kieu My asks.

“Like everyone from the Abiball group Ismail made.”

“Ohh niceee! We can’t start talking about activities or meetings or maybe-“

“Hi guys!”

The three that were already sitting at the table look where the voice comes from, and see Nora, Josh and Yara standing and waving at them.

“Hello people, sit!” Ismail greets them with a happy smile.

Josh and Nora go sit together next to Ismail and Yara joins Kieu My and Fatou on their side of the table. A couple of minutes later, Finn and Zoe arrive with Ava, the only one missing is Mailin.

“Where’s Mailin?” Yara asks.

“She was getting something in her locker, I think.” Ava says.

Yara smiles at the table, and Fatou feels that something is off, but she doesn’t address it. Mailin arrives a couple minutes later, and Yara makes a small place for her on the bench.

“So now that everyone is here, I wanted to let you know that the director is letting us use the storage room as a meeting room for our Abiball meetings.” Yara explains. “She said that she was happy that we were taking initiatives, because she was worried that with the biology exams dilemma, no one would want to keep the Abiball committee alive.”

Everyone cheers happily, and it really feels good to be all together, not fighting and just enjoying the friendship that they all share. It looks like everyone is really appreciating the people present, even if there are some things that need to be fixed, the chemistry that all of them have is pretty amazing.

“Guys!” Ismail screams. “I was wondering if we could maybe choose the day of the week that we would meet? Like what fits with your schedules and all.”

“Not the weekends please.” Zoe says.

“Yeah, no way I’m coming to school on the weekend days.” Yara says.

“I work on Thursdays.” Fatou says.

“And me on Wednesdays.” Mailin says.

“Not Fridays, except for parties.” Josh says.

“I second that, Fridays are for parties only.” Finn agrees.

“What about Mondays?” Ava proposes.

Everyone agrees, and Ismail writes it down.

“I always have the key to the storage room, the director gave one to me, so we can always go.” Yara says.

“Perfect, next Monday will be our first meeting.” Ismail says.

“I still have the money that we collected with the hoodies.” Mailin says.

“I can handle the money if you guys want.” Yara says, looking directly at Mailin.

“That could be good, I’ll text you so we can figure it out.” Mailin says.

“Well everything is perfect and figured out! I just wanted to thank you guys for agreeing to this and I think this group has a lot of potential.” Ismail says.

Everyone says “aww” and laugh, this group feels good and everyone can definitely feel it. Fatou looks at Kieu My and smiles, she has her girl, she has her friends, what more could she ask for.

_16:12_

She has been working for the last hour, but it has felt like minutes. Fatou is really enjoying this new job. Nothing stresses her, she just has to take care of the animals and clean their cages. She can even play with them when she has time. She decided to always go to see Maike, before and after her shift, to say hi. This is honestly like her dream job, she doesn’t have to work with other people, she doesn’t have to talk to clients. The only numbers she has to figure out is the numbers on the cages, but Helena made her a map of the zoo, and that helps her a lot.

“Hi cutie” Fatou says to the lizard she has to feed. “Here is your food for today, and I’m going to fill up your water. Everything looks good little man.” Fatou smiles at the small lizard eating his food.

She has to close the zoo with Helena at 8, and she still has a lot of things to do before they close. She goes back to her list, and next up is feeding the fishes.

_21:35_

Once again, Fatou finds herself lying on her bed with her books opened and her messy notes everywhere. She wants to understand the chapter before they review it in class tomorrow, because she won’t understand the review if she doesn’t understand what the chapter is about and how to do the exercises. Even with therapy, numbers are still mostly a mystery to Fatou and she has to really keep herself focused if she wants to get things done, and it’s exhausting. She wonders if taking medication might help her, but she knows that the biggest problem isn’t her focus, it’s what the numbers mean. She’s glad she has her calculator with her, because without it, she would not have made it this far in school. For hours, she reads over the same few topics and formulas, but honestly it still doesn’t make any sense to her. She is just learning it by heart and putting it in the exercises. After some time, she gets the answers right, but it doesn’t mean she understands how it works, she just knows how to do it. She sighs and decides that it is enough for tonight.

_ 23:15 _

[Text - Ava 3]

_Friday - 14:22_

The teacher had written down the exercises that they were supposed to do during the class, as a review. Fatou is drawing at the top of her page, for the past 15 minutes every time she looked at a maths problem, she gets overwhelmed and can’t breath. At the beginning of the class, she was able to do a couple of exercises but once again she knows she doesn’t actually understand. She just takes the formulas from her notes and uses the data in the exercises to find the answer. The numbers don’t make sense to her, but at least she knows that by using the exact steps as in her notes, she might not fail the exam. She sighs, it was supposed to be easier, it wasn’t supposed to get even more stressful. She never had that much anxiety before and it’s something that she really isn’t used to. Since Tuesday, she feels like the only thing she did is study maths, even with Kieu My, and it’s getting too much. She is exhausted from all the numbers spinning in her head, she just tries to focus on the small drawings she is doing. She can’t wait to be with Ava, and play their new song and write new songs. It is the only that keeps her from breaking down right now. She holds on to the image of her and Ava writing music and having fun. Fatou starts tapping her pen on the table, and her head is filled with music. She silently hums a rhythm in her head and thinks of lyrics for their songs. She writes down: “Less time by my own but more time with you, nothing better than you, let’s escape the world…”

_18:43_

“Less time by my own.

More time with you,

Let’s escape the world

Just you and me, baby”

Fatou and Ava have been on a streak, both of them feel fantastically inspired today. Fatou comes up with the lyrics and Ava comes up with the beats, or sometime it is the opposite.

“Damn chibi, you are on fire today.”

“Aww bebi…” Fatou smiles at the other girl. “I really enjoy this, it’s really an escape from reality, you know, it feels good.”

Ava nods and smiles at her best friend.

“I was wondering if everything is going better with your parents and all? If you want to talk about it…” Fatou asks.

“I guess it’s better, I’ve had more time to deal with the news and honestly living here makes it easier because I’m not be in the middle of all the drama.” Ava says sadly. “But I still wish they weren’t separating…”

“Yeah, it makes sense…I’m always here if you need any type of support, you know that, right?”

“I know, you’re the best.”

“Come here, and give me a big hug.”

Ava stands up, and Fatou comes closer. They share a loving hug, and both smile at how comfortable they are with each other.

“Time will make things easier, I’m sure…” Fatou says.

“Let’s hope so.”

Both girls back up from the other and look at each other with a big smile.

“Just you and me, baby” Fatou sings jokingly.

Ava cracks up at Fatou’s face and they share a beautiful smile.

“Shall we get back to the music?” Ava asks.

“Can we get some food first ? I’m getting hungry.”

“Sure, I bought some cookies yesterday, just for you.”

“You are definitely the best best friend in the entire world.”

The girls go get the cookies, and eat for a couple of minutes while brainstorming ideas for songs. They are lying in Ava’s bed for a long time.

“By the way, have you looked at how our song did on SoundCloud?” Fatou asks.

“Not really, I’ve been pretty busy with school this week, honestly…But we can look now?”

Fatou agrees and they stand up to go up to Ava’s desk on which her computer is. Ava opens up Soundcloud and they both look at their profile.

“Oh my god…this is crazy…”Ava says

The two girls look at each other in awe. The song they published last week has almost ten thousand listens, and they gained near three thousand followers. A lot of people commented on their songs, they are very positive, they love the song and they are asking for more.

“Ava…are we famous or what?”

“I don’t get it, we only had like 30 followers last week.”

They both don’t understand where all this attention is coming from. They can’t stop smiling, the feeling that they get from doing music is even stronger now that they know that people like what they are doing.

“We should do more.” Ava says. “I mean, if you have time and if you want to…”

“I would love to, I haven’t felt this good in a while.”Fatou explains “I can’t wait until we do more. This is crazy.”

“This is so exciting, chibi! Damn.”

They spend the rest of the night working on music and jamming together. They smile, they laugh, they sing and they feel overly happy. They write ideas, lyrics, chords, everything that comes up to their head. They try new sounds, more acoustic or more electronic and how they fit with their voices. They do some harmonies, and let their creativity take the lead. They don’t see time go by, Fatou ends up deciding o sleep over at Ava’s.

“Can you put an alarm for 10 am, please? I have to go work at 11:30.”

“Done.”

They are so lost in their own little world of music, that Fatou hasn’t even checked her phone all night and she doesn’t go on it before letting herself fall asleep.

[Text - Q2 02]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, I appreciate all the comments and all the kudos! Hopefully, you liked this chapter! Don't hesitate to give me your opinion!  
> -Z

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! I have some ideas for the whole story, but if you want to give ideas or critiques, don't hesitate:)


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